"BUSINESS IS BUSINESS"

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

" BUSINESS IS BUSINESS"

THE MAN WHO .RAISED THE WIND. (By D. M. Wright.) Slowly and rather heavily he came into the office and stood smiling. I did not offer him a chair at first, for his right to befchere was of the slightest, and I was busy. His manner was impressive, as was the extreme fairness of his thin hair and delicate, pink-and-white, overwashed look of his large <£ace. There was about him an air of mild mystery, a grace of milder humility, and a softness of speech which should have been charming. He so genuinely admired my work and so seriously sought my advice that—well, he left the office with a borrowed pound in his pocket. It was the least I could do. His troubles as an outsider in the world of ink in a new and strange land had not greatly moved me, but he came back and told me some more about them, and then some more. Even after many hours of listening my interest was weak, but he slowly wove a thin web around me—a slight and silken web of good deeds. Maximus Crawfelly—Heaven knows how he came by a name like that or why he invented it!—made himself part of my environment. If he was not quite on the same footing as my table and chair, he grew to be as much a part of me as my lunch-hour or my standing-room in a crowded tram. I did not think of him as a friend, did not even like him, but he was a fact—one of a number of facts, and a prominent one at that. He wrote a little and referred to himself as a humble learner; he wrote a little more, and suggested that he was a great genius requiring only leisure 2jid opportunities to do wonderful things. His style of writing, though largely a matter of extensive phrase-borrowing, was showy and not altogether unattractive. The chief weakness of his work lay in the weakness of its thought. But though the efforts of Maximus Crawfelly as a free-lance writer met with some success, his financial position did not improve. The intimate story of his troubles had gradually risen about me like a grey mist. I vaguely sympathised, and from that sympathy he drew a small but regular revenue. It is true he had ceased to ask me for pounds. " Have you got any silver about you, old man ? " was the regular question; and, of course, I was generally weak enough to have some. A full year had elapsed since my first meeting with Maximus Crawfelly, when I got ray first insight into his general plan of campaign. It was Roy Francis who brought the first enlightenment. Roy came into my room with the usual limp and the usual smile on his print-worn countenance, his coat off, and his old grey waistcoat sticking full of pins he used to fix his small sheets of copy to-* gether. Roy looked like a faded cutter in a second-class tailoring establishment, and was in reality one of the smartest paragraph writers I have ever known. " Look," he said. " This chap Crawfelly—what do you think of him ? " " Oh, I don't know. Decent enough sort of poor devil." " Do you like him ? " " Yes —that is, no. He's not m$ sort. No, I don't like him, but I can't help being a bit sorry for him."; " Rather expensive pity, isn't it ? " " I don't know. Yes, I suppose it is. Why ? Has he been touching you, too ? " Roy grinned. " I'd have a good win if he paid me all back." ' 0 I tried to make a mental calculation of what Maximus might really owe me, but gave it up. -f "Do you know that this office pays him extra rates ~ffor his contributions ?" JI " No," I said, ,"I didn't know. He's lucky to get them.-' " Do you laiow. he's got a debt of eighty pounds; 'to the office that he pays back in instalments from the stuff he sells us? "• -'• Phew ! " Lsaid:-'v" That is all news to xac. How has.- 1 he* managed it ? " "A_-k me something easier," said Roy. s 'He's : worked on the chief's sympathy, I suppopj He writes for four other papers*, and I know he has at least th reo otherlghaps besides ourselves on the borrowing string." "He doesn'i get a~';great lot from me, you ki'i.ow." ■.'* "'- r , "That's all right, thenj don't let him. I wai|rmly putting\you wise. You can tdgjlprifrom nie, if you see him, that Jaßfeetting my boot if he comes sneakSjKroiind my door again." The grin «gone from Roy's face, and he lookeSflli if his words;were no idle threat, m It was not lwng Maximus Crawfelly called again* a new Maximus, a Maximds; full 'of power and glory, yv/ho entered; the room, and with him' was a little lady of great charm and same heatstyi. V " I couldn't help bribing' along my dear Olga to see such,>aa ; ;,old-ifc>end," he explained. " Miss * ■'&&sm§ -\ Mr Page." " ;:;Ay ; ' V I offered the lady a'hifeiisi 'ikl gratulated Maxim as ens?agement. -4C \ :', : "Yes, it's all. fixed up. \t >vas a case of love at first sight, wasn't it, Olga ? " „. .- ) The lady smiles)at .;hiniadtermgly, and I brutally v wandered-.: if Y;ad borrowed small sums of ja-om her until he had"] charmed her\ "feto, helplessness., ~' S*. • "She admiredmy work, ~ ? jf *> mired her; singing," said "so you seeiithe'thing wasina able." - • ::\ It was not'a comfortable intei'<rioy? I had neyerfknown Crawfelly lock *. n painfully: ore; All his meek/■ ness was gone, and he was loud anch assertive. -Fortunately they did not\ stay long, and I breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone, and.settled; down,-to my interrupted work, Within an hour Maximus a faint shadow merely of the spiendJ person he had seemed at his* earlj^H " I'm frightfully busy," I said. ■ M " I know—l know," he s;h^|^^ down in a chair. "Go on. fl It is so important I hadJM '^l

you for advice. But don’t stop your work.” Now, I can work in the midst of a babel of tongues or with the roar of the street beating in at my window, but I cannot work with somebody sitting in a chair at my elbow. “ What is it ? ” I asked, irritably. “ By the way, Crawfelly, don’t go near Roy Francis. I don’t know what you have done to him, but he’s thirsting for your blood.” “ Roy Francis ! ” he cried in amazement. “ Why, I took Olga to see him just after we left you. He invited us to dine with him to-morrow evening.” I drew a centipede on my blotting paper and thought hard thoughts. “ This is the trouble, Page,” said Maximus, dropping his voice almost to a confidential whisper* “ I’ve got the very finest girl in the world old Hyams’ daughter, you know—pots of money.” ‘You’re in luck,” I said. “ 1 am. We’re going to be married next month.” “So soon? More luck, I should say.” “Yes, but that’s the trouble. I’m all right. Everything’s all right. But how am I going to finance things till then? I’ve got to spend I don’t know what I’ve got to spend.” He raised his white hands with a waving motion which might have been intended to indicate a polite despair. “ I’m afraid I can’t help you much.” “ Much ! Oh, my dear fellow, you have helped me. The smallest assistance is of such vital importance just now. After next month, why ” In the end I parted with a fiver. * * * * Maximus Crawfelly passed out of my life for some time when I went to Australia. I believe he led his blushing bride to the altar or the registry office—l never knew which—about the time I was crossing the Tasman. Things went wrong with me in the new continent. It was three years before I returned to this country to fill a much less important position than I had held before leaving to better my fortune elsewhere. I was glad to feel the pavement of my native town under omy feet once more, but the changes many, and I did not enter the place as a conqueror. I had less than a dozen pounds in the world, and it was necessary to provide some sort of a home for those dependent on me. _ We could not afford to pay hotel bills an hour longer than was absolutely necessary. I sought out Roy Francis. We talked of many things, and I found it most difficult to come to the point.' It was not that I expected Roy him-: self to help me out. I knew too much of his affairs to imagine that he would have any loose money to lend to a derelict returned from wasting his substance in trying to enlighten the masses in a far land. What I hoped was that he could pat me on to a likely source of wealth from which I could temporarily draw. . At length I managed to blurt out m an awkward way the thing I had/ come to say. Where in the town could I put my hands on fifty or sixty pounds without security except such as was offered by a rather meagre salary ? Roy pondered the problem for some time; then he said: -“ Why not go to our old friend, Maximus Crawfelly ? ” Maximus Crawfelly 1 The name and the man rushed back to my memory. Yes, he certainly owed me something, and if he had married the lovely Olga he ought to have some ready cash. “ What papers does he write for now ? ” I asked. “ Do you know where he is to be found ? ” Roy grinned. “ Crawfelly doesn’t write now. He has found a game more to his taste.” He gave me the address, and I went to the street and number indicated, and paused in surprise when I readthe large gilt lettering on the cfoor: “ Maximus Crawfelly, Financier.” Financier! The man who had.shown such skill in borrowing pounds and half-crowns and even-shillings in the old days was now in business for himself as a money lender. “Why Page,” he cried with loud enthusiasm when he saw me; “this is a pleasant surprise. Come in, come in. Rather a change from the old times, eh? Take a seat, take a seat. Now what can I do for you?” The abrupt change in his tone brought me to the point at once. “I want a loan of fifty pounds, Crawfelly.” “Fifty. Certainly, old maii, certainly. I’m delighted to have the opportunity. Well, I am glad to see you.” ' He struck a bell on the table, and a clerk appeared. He pencilled some instructions on a slip of paper and handed it to him. “I’m delighted to see you, Page. You bring back those of;! times of struggle and success -&V. Avidly.” “Your wife is well,:%;t!i.l}st.” I made the remarks I found it difficult to say anyMihgxAtvall. “In splendid healthypPage. Lovelier everyday.” The clerk ref him v a cheque to sign, and piacingPpen and ink and a piece of paper before rme. It was a receipt for £75. y.y I •-,'1.-.' “Here, I-say, Crawfelly, X oply asked for £50.” . He smiled largely; “Business is business,he - said, “even between friends. The cheque is for £50.” No doubt I should have protested , in the name of decency, morality and : all - the virtues. No doubt I-should , j have threatened to denounce him as a , 1 fraud, a cheat and a lawbreaker. In- ' v-fend I meekly wrote ray name. .i: ‘Tin delighted to be of service to ; i.yr.u,” said Maximum, as I rose to ,i- leave. “You must come up and dine (i with us one of these evenings.” “You win, Crayvfelly,” I said, v “I don’t understand, Page—win—yes—ha, ha, ha!d|;So like the good vM times’ eh?” JL 'yToo liq* them, I thought, but I did ' to jeopardise that cheque. I his hand when he extended